The high level of decline in the state of public education in Nigeria has led many parents and guardians to enrol their children and wards in private schools instead, which provide high-quality education. The increasing level of enrollment in private schools in Nigeria makes establishing a private school a worthwhile and highly lucrative venture – if it is properly run. If you’re wondering how to run a private school successfully in Nigeria, you’ve come to the right place. Follow the guidelines we’ll be providing in this article to do just that.
How to run a private school successfully in Nigeria would be discussed below:
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Choose How You Want Your School to be Structured
To run a successful private school in Nigeria, you’ve got to determine the sort of structure you want for your school. This involves deciding if the school would be for-profit or non-profit. If the school is for-profit, you’ll have to decide how the affairs of the school would be run. Will it be overseen by a proprietor, by a business partnership or by a limited liability company? You should settle for whichever option you feel is the best way to manage and finance your private school.
The other thing to decide concerning the structure of your private school is to determine if you want to run only a nursery school, a nursery and primary school, a secondary school, or a combination of all three. Your experience and financial strength should be taken into consideration so you wouldn’t burn out. Most private schools usually start with lower classes, adding upper classes over time.
Furthermore, you’ll want to decide if you want to run a day school or a boarding school. If it’s a boarding school you have in mind, know it would demand more money and work than day school would.
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Choose a Favourable Location for Your Private School
The location of a private school plays a very important role in how successful the school would be. The best area to site a private school is in a residential or semi-residential area, away from the hustle and bustle. In addition to selecting a residential area, the location of the private school should be where it’s easy to access, safe and convenient.
You could rent or lease a space for your school if you don’t have a huge operating budget. On the other hand, if there’s the financial capacity to buy land and build the school from scratch; do. Whether you rent, lease, or build your school facility, ensure the classrooms are spacious and permit natural light, and open spaces are available for outdoor recreation.
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Develop a Blueprint for Your Private School
If you want to run a private school successfully in Nigeria, you’ll want to develop a blueprint, say a 5-year plan, that covers how the school would operate in terms of operational and educational plans. This will set your private school on a successful path, and can also inspire confidence in your potential financial donors if you have any.
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Determine How to Fund Your Private School
Establishing and running a private school in Nigeria isn’t a walk in the park – it’s capital intensive. So, to ensure that your school becomes successful, you must know how far your operating budget can go in establishing your secondary school. Do this by summing up the expenses involved such as land fee (or price of land), legal licensing and permits, marketing and promoting the school, as well as hiring staff, among other things. You could also reach out to other private school owners around you and ask to get an idea of the cost of a school.
As we stated earlier, starting a private school in Nigeria from scratch is an expensive venture, costing between NGN 2 million to as much as NGN 20 million to start. You may need to borrow from financial institutions, seek partnerships or receive monetary donations from family and friends, or as you deem fit to raise the money to carry out the project.
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Equip Your Private School
To make sure your private school has an edge over the competition, it’s important to equip the school with the necessary educational materials like textbooks and teaching materials, as well as necessities such as computers, working tools, playing equipment, and much more. These facilities are crucial to attracting parents to enrol their kids and wards in your private school.
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Hire Qualified Staff for Your Private School
The workforce of a private school greatly influences how successful such a school would be. Remember, parents and guardians, choose private schools over public schools because of the belief that the standard of education is higher in private schools. Hence, the importance of employing qualified staff can’t be overemphasized.
For teachers, ensure to employ only those with experience and relevant educational qualifications. Employing qualified teachers in your private school enhances the intellectual development of the students. Sound teachers develop sound pupils and students.
Other school staff such as librarians, sports coaches, bursars, receptionists, secretaries, cleaners, bus drivers, clerks, and so on, should also be hired based on their experience, and relevant educational qualifications. The minimum acceptable qualification for staff of your private school should be NCE.
Investing in workshops, seminars, and pieces of training for your teachers and other staff will improve the productivity of the school’s workforce, which in turn benefits the students.
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Properly Register Your Private School According to the Provisions of the Government
The Ministry of Education provides the procedure for all private schools to register. First off, with the help of a lawyer, register your school with the Corporate Affairs Commission. Then, ensure to fulfil all the tax requirements for your private school. Furthermore, it would be good if you register with the association of private schools like NAPPS.
After your private has satisfied everything up to this point, apply for a school inspection to ensure the facilities in your school are up to code and safe.
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Get a Good Curriculum and Open the Doors of Your Private School
If your school works with a good academic curriculum such as one obtained from the Ministry of Education, as well as a non-academic curriculum, the students and pupils in your private school are sure to receive a high-quality education.
To open your private school for the first time, it’s best to choose September when the new academic session starts.
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Promote and Market Your Private School
To drum up interest in your private school, you can use a variety of marketing strategies ranging from designing a website that will provide information about admissions and enrollment online, to word-of-mouth, and other traditional marketing approaches like placing banners of your school’s offerings at strategic locations or using the media.